Artificial pavement.



UNTTE STATEs ATENT Tricia.

JOSEPH n. AMIES, on PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR or ONE; nALE TOCHARLES FREMONT TAYLOR, or sAME PLAcE.

ARTIFICIAL PAVEMENT.

sPEcrEreAEIoN forming part of Letters Patent No. 684,739, dated October15, 1901.

Application filed January 23,1901.

To (tZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOSEPH HAY AMIES, a citizen of the United States ofAmerica, and a resident of Philadelphia, county of Philadelphia, andState of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvementsin Artificial Pavements, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to the composition of artificial pavements,particularly those in which asphalt is an ingredient.

I have discovered a new method of treating asphalt which enables it tobe in a measure prepared in a mill where the necessary power is providedand in the condition of granulation without admixture with sand or othermaterials used in making such pavements, carried cold any distance tothe place where the pavement is to be made, and laid.

Describing my method, I put asphalt in a grinding or pulverizing milland reduce it to a coarse powder, about as fine as common sand. Anyworker in asphalt knows that under ordinary conditions asphalt cannot beground or pulverized, because such action upon it produces a paste orthick gummy product, which clogs the mill and defies granulation. Toovercome this difficulty, I grind or reduce it in water, preferably byconstantly spraying upon the asphalt when in the mill streams of water.The action of the water upon it is to harden or crystallize it andprevent it becoming a paste or gummy. I ship it in sufficient water tohold it in a granulated condition and prevent it becoming viscid againand cohering, and because of the water I preferably put it in closedvessels for shipment, or it may be mixed in the proper proportions withsand and the whole well dampened 5 but this latter method, if thedistance it has to be carried is considerable, may be costly for freightor cartage. Circumstances will determine the better method of shippingit. Having my prepared asphalt at the point where the pavement is to belaid, I next make a heap of sand in the roadway and thoroughly mix thewet granulated asphalt in the proper proportions with it. Then I pourover the pile a quantity of residuum or some other like oil, and thenagain on top of it a quantity of naphtha or benzin as an agent forquickly firing the mass, and I then set it on fire. The fire iscontinued until the whole mass becomes hot enough to cause the asphaltand the sand Serial No. M348. (No specimens!) to unite and becomeconcrete and closely associated. I may turn the mass over and over whileit is being heated through in the manner described, maintaining the fireby additions of naphtha as required. The presence of the water in themass prevents the asphalt from being scorched, which is an importantpoint. The water is gradually evaporated in the process. While the massis still hot and plastic, a quantity of carbonate of lime may be workedinto it. The mass is then leveled to the grade, rolled or tamped, andthe pavement is ready for use.

My object in so making my pavement is to compound it when and where itis to be laid down, and so render it possible to put asphalt pavementsin country and outlying districts without first creating an expensiveplant to melt the asphalt and mix it hot with the hot sand and then cartsaid mixture in a heated condition to the place where it is to be used,as the present method requires. My method saves all these expenses,which are a very large proportion of the cost of making asphaltpavements, and produces a pavement equal to the finest now in use.

It will be observed that the asphalt is granulated cold. The sand isalso cold, and the first and only place where heat is applied is at thespot where the pavement is to be laid, and the heat is produced byfiring an oily fluid poured over the mixture of sand and asphalt. This,with the exception of the grinding-mill, is all done without machinery,furnaces, and kilns.

I am aware that resins and tars have heretofore been ground in coldwater. I therefore do not broadly claim said process.

What I claim is---- The within-described method of compounding acomposite pavement, which consists in granulating asphalt in cold water,and maintaining it granulated in cold water, mixing it with sand, addingoil as a fuel to the composition, then firing same to produce heatsufficient to cause the whole mass to unite and become concrete, thenwhile still plastic adding carbonate of lime, substantially asdescribed.

Signed at Philadelphia this 22d day of January, 1901.

JOS. H. AMIES.

Witnesses:

JOHN W. SonANnEIN, J os. W. ROBERTSON.

